The headquarters of the Central Chinese Television (CCTV).
Axel Schmidt | DDP | Getty Images
China Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday that the trade conflict with the U.S. will need to be resolved through further talks.
“The Chinese side always believes that the differences and frictions between the two sides in the economic and trade field will ultimately need to be resolved through dialogue and consultation,” a spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday.
“However, consultations are principled and need to be based on mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit…It is hoped that the US will abandon its wrong practices and work in tandem with the Chinese side. In the spirit of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, we will control differences and strengthen cooperation to jointly safeguard the healthy and stable development of China-US economic and trade relations,” the statement said.
The comments came after both the U.S. and China ramped up threats in the ongoing trade war after the negotiations fell through early May. China reportedly stopped purchases of U.S. soybeans and threatened to cut off its rare earth supply to the U.S., while the U.S. blacklisted Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
China issued a white paper on Sunday illustrating a widening gap between the two sides, claiming that the U.S. is an untrustworthy negotiator and has backtracked on the proposed deal. The claim contradicted the reports from U.S. media several weeks ago saying Beijing backed out from basically all negotiating points during talks.
“The Chinese side has always carried the greatest patience and sincerity to promote China-US economic and trade consultations,” the statement on Tuesday said. “The US side accused China of ‘reversing the car’ during the consultations, which is completely nonsense. In the course of the consultation, it is the usual practice of trade negotiations to propose amendments and make adjustments to the text content and related expressions.”
China also said last week that it will establish a list of unreliable entities of foreign companies and people that “seriously damage” the interests of domestic firms.
